Is BDSM sexual?

This is one of those troublingly general questions that simply begs for a flame war.

There is no shortage of kinky people who get turned on by kinky behavior. There is also no shortage of kinky people that don’t. And then there are the kinky people who find some kinks sexy and others not, no way, no how, are you kidding??? And then there are the kinky people who find some kinks erotic in fantasy only, but who would never like them in reality. Not to mention the kinky people who don’t think that other kinky people could possibly find some particular kinks erotic, or not erotic. And then how much plain old sex gets blended into the kinky behaviors–or what kinky behaviors people consider to be sex in the first place–is another colossal variable.